The committee, also, in this interval, brought out their famous print of the plan and section of a slave-ship, which was designed to give the spectator an idea of the sufferings of the Africans in the Middle Passage, and this so familiarly, that he might instantly pronounce upon the miseries experienced there. The committee at Plymouth had been the first to suggest the idea; but that in London had now improved it. As this print seemed to make an instantaneous impression of horror upon all who saw it, and as it was therefore very instrumental, in consequence of the wide circulation given it, in serving the cause of the injured Africans, I have given the reader a copy of it in the annexed plate, and I will now state the ground or basis upon which it was formed.
It must be obvious that it became the committee to select some one ship, which had been engaged in the Slave Trade, with her real dimensions, if they meant to make a fair representation of the manner of the transportation. When Captain Parrey, of the royal navy, returned from Liverpool, to which place Government had sent him, he brought with him the admeasurement of several vessels which had been so employed, and laid them on the table of the House of Commons. At the top of his list stood the ship Brookes. The committee, therefore, in choosing a vessel on this occasion, made use of the ship Brookes; and this they did, because they thought it less objectionable to take the first that came, than any other. The vessel, then, in the plate is the vessel now mentioned, and the following is her admeasurement as given in by Captain Parrey.
| Ft. | In. | |
| Length of the lower deck, gratings, and bulk heads included at A A | 100 | 0 |
| Breadth of beam on the lower deck inside, B B | 25 | 4 |
| Depth of hold ooo, from ceiling to ceiling | 10 | 0 |
| Height between decks from deck to deck | 5 | 8 |
| Length of the men's room, C C, on the lower deck | 46 | 0 |
| Breadth of the men's room, C C, on the lower deck | 25 | 4 |
| Length of the platform, D D, in the men's room | 46 | 0 |
| Breadth of the platform in the men's room, on each side | 6 | 0 |
| Length of the boys' room, E E | 13 | 9 |
| Breadth of the boys' room | 25 | 0 |
| Breadth of platform, F F, in boys' room | 6 | 0 |
| Length of women's room, G G | 28 | 6 |
| Breadth of women's room | 23 | 6 |
| Length of platform, H H, in women's room | 28 | 6 |
| Breadth of platform in women's room | 6 | 0 |
| Length of the gun-room, I I, on the lower deck | 10 | 6 |
| Breadth of the gun-room on the lower deck | 12 | 0 |
| Length of the quarter-deck, K K | 33 | 6 |
| Breadth of the quarter-deck | 19 | 6 |
| Length of the cabin, L L | 14 | 0 |
| Height of the cabin | 6 | 2 |
| Length of the half-deck, M M | 16 | 6 |
| Height of the half-deck | 6 | 2 |
| Length of the platform, N N, on the half-deck | 16 | 6 |
| Breadth of the platform on the half-deck | 6 | 0 |
| Upper deck, P P |
The committee, having proceeded thus far, thought that they should now allow certain dimensions for every man, woman, and child; and then see how many persons, upon such dimensions and upon the admeasurements just given, could be stowed in this vessel. They allowed, accordingly, to every man slave 6 ft. by 1 ft. 4in. for room, to every woman 5 ft. by 1 ft. 4 in., to every boy 5 ft. by 1 ft. 2 in., and to every girl 4 ft. 6 in. by 1 ft. They then stowed them, and found them as in the annexed plate, that is, they found, (deducting the women stowed in z of figures 6 and 7, which spaces, being half of the half-deck, were allowed by Sir William Dolben's last bill to the seamen,) that only 450 could be stowed in her; and the reader will find, if he should think it worthwhile to count the figures in the plate, that, on making the deduction mentioned, they will amount to this number.
The committee then thought it right to inquire how many slaves the act of Sir William Dolben allowed this vessel to carry, and they found the number to be 454; that is, they found it
allowed her to carry four more than could be put in without trespassing upon the room allotted to the rest; for we see that the bodies of the slaves, except just at the head of the vessel, already touch each other, and that no deduction has been made for tubs or stanchions to support the platforms and decks.